Mantze

Mantze, a Chinese term meaning "untameable worms," applied in a general way, in the sense of "barbarous" or "wild," to the hill tribes especially of the southern and south-western provinces. In 1877 Lieutenant Gill visited the Sumu, a large nation called by the Chinese "White Man-tze," who formed a confederacy of 18 groups recognising a king or lord paramount, and reaching from west Yunnan to the extreme north of Sechuen. They wore the Chinese dress and conformed to Chinese customs, but spoke a language "resembling Sanskrit" (?). These are in no sense "wild;" for they carefully till the land, weave textiles, build houses and towers in the Tibetan style, have schools for their children, and evenpossessbooks in Tibetan and Chinese characters.